$15 minimum wage will raise the cost of goods and services

Sun Benjamin, a home health care worker, looks out from under a cap advocating a $15 minimum wage as she prepares to walk with other protesters on a day-long march in support of fast-food workers Thursday in SeaTac, WA(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Those who think that the cost of doing business, including wages paid, has nothing to do with the cost of goods and services, raise your hand. Those with their hands up would undoubtedly vote for the raise in minimum wage. Those who think about the consequences would vote against it.

My first job paid $1 a day; bread was 10 cents a loaf, and gasoline was 13 cents a gallon — 8 gallons for one dollar. Was my first thought to demand a higher wage, or was it to prepare myself for a job that paid more? I chose the latter and that is the choice young people today should also make. Get off the street and prepare yourself for a better job.

Should this minimum-wage increase pass, prices for just about everything will rise proportionally. Those who had progressed to jobs that now pay $15 an hour will want a raise to $20. The spiraling cost of doing business would result in higher cost of goods and services for everyone. Once again, the minimum-wage people would suffer financially.

The simple truth is that anything that raises the cost of doing business would raise the cost of goods and services. Raising the minimum wage is a bad idea for everyone.

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